Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A Beautiful Reminder

This song brings a sweet truth to a hurting world! I am so thankful for Jesus. It is sinful human nature that feels the need to "clean" ourselves, or at least the image of ourselves, up for others. And we also foolishly think somtimes that we can hide our true hearts from God. But He knows and understands my heart better than I do, and loves me still! Love that moved Him to pay the debt I owed; to give me a clean heart. I am precious to Him. All I can say is awesome-in its truest definition. God knows your pain and dissappointments, your failures and fears.. but even the biggest one is nothing in the shadow of the cross! And that is where we can truly find identity. Hope this is an encouragement to someone else.
Days will come when you don't have the strength
When all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart, they'd see too much
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful

Praying that you have the heart to fight
'Cause you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you've held inside so long
They are nothing in the shadow of the cross
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful.

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skies above
You're the one He madly loves enough to die

You're beautiful
You're beautiful in His eyes

You're beautiful
You are made for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His
You're beautiful

Monday, June 13, 2011

Empty Vessels

I feel like there's so much I want to share because 1) I haven't blogged in FOR-EV-ER, and 2)God has been teaching/convicting/reminding/burdening me a ton as of late! And even as I type each of those words in that little slash-train, I think of how each one often comes with negative feelings attached. But I can honestly say its been a breath of fresh air, because it gives me joy knowing that each of those things comes cloaked in God's grace and His love for me. And all for the goal of a more intimate relationship with Him!  Since I have a lot on my mind and I definitely don't want this post to be a jumbled mess of brain vomit that no one can follow or wants to read, I will just try and keep it simple. Key word: try....

The beauty of God's sovereignty. "Beauty" may not normally be used to describe it, but as I sat here and thought about it, its perfect.

((beauty: having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about;delighting...;excellent!))

I've been reading in Esther and this theme of God's sovereignty is woven so intricately and unmistakably throughout this account. As the scene unravels, we see how God planned on delivering His people through Esther. ( I won't go into detail for reasons stated above, but you can read it yourself and I hope you catch the glimpses of God's hand in all of it!) There were many situations leading up the the point where Esther actually became queen and was used to deliver the Jews, and we see how God used each one to lead up to His plan!

This study in Esther is the base of a huge thing God has taught me! God is sovereign. He wants to use His children as vessels to accomplish His will. And not just in BIG ways like becoming a queen. As I said before many different events led up to Esther being made queen. We like to overlook those "little" situations, because we view them just as that- little! But WE are not the ones in control and we do not know how each situation will be apart of God's big picture for our lives or the lives of someone else. I am sure that when in Esther chapter 1 the King decides to get rid of Vashti as his queen, Esther (or anyone, for that matter!) had no idea how HUGE that was in grand scheme of things in her life and for the whole nation!

I guess the long and short of it is this: Since we do not know specifically how God wants or plans to use us where he has placed us, our job is to be obedient in every situation and be emptied vessels living lives led by the Spirit! (Tongue twisting, run-on sentence aside- I hope you catch what I'm trying to say!) For example, say I go to check out at Wal Mart and I feel the Lord's prompting to share the gospel with my cashier, I do it because this "insignificant" little conversation while she's beeping up my groceries may lead to the BIGGEST most important event in this lady's life story! Or I don't do it, because one little conversation at a cash register couldn't possibly change someones life, right? A conversation in and of itself, no. An all-powerful loving God? You better believe it! Do we think God is BIG enough for that? Do we think God is BIG enough to work out His plan in our everyday decisions? So the only obvious response is to be OBEDIENT and TRUST because we are following the only One who has the perfect plan! Even if I don't see the big picture. And this truth is beautiful, and gives me such peace. Thanks for listening :)